Solutions List
=Prevent oil from entering the sea= Fixing BOP (BLOW OUT PREVENTER) *access mechanism in BOP that powers the cutting rams. If hydraulically actuated, use functional BOP and attach corresponding hydraulic lines from functional BOP to lines that activate the rams. Then activate the functional BOP ram closing process. There is limited information on the state of the BOP. Due to the lack of information released to the public by BP. It is uncertain if there is rock or some other kind of debris that is preventing the cutting ram form being trigger. It has been suggested that the actuators have been already been triggered but something is preventing them from closing. Capturing oil before it enters the sea *Using containment box or dome. This concept is already in work by BP. BP has tried two variations of this methods so far. The first was a larger 100 ton, 4 story containment box.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/06/gulf-oil-cleanup-100-ton_n_565610.html The second was a 5ft tall 4ft in diameter box that weighs less than 2 tons.http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/12/oil.spill.main/index.html BP has reported that the use of the larger containment box was abandoned because of ice crystals of frozen hydrates accumulated at the top of the device which prevented oil from being pumped from the box. BP also reported that the dome became buoyant and began to float. Other problems have also been suggested. The smaller devise, the "Top Hat", has been placed near the scene but has apparently not been tried yet *My idea is to use a series(deflated) rubber bladders encased in a larger bladder with metal opening on either end, drag it to the bottom of the sea, attach one end to the pipe and the other to a tanker hose and then start pumping. The bladders should have no problem as far as sea resistance or turbulance and should be able to be attached easily enough with robotics, and can be expanded to any sizeor length needed, then use Kevin Costners centrifuge that pupmps 200 GPM to clean up the mess. 04:31, May 26, 2010 (UTC)Josh G. Stopping oil from leaving drill pipe/riser *Pinch drill pipe/riser closed using hydraulic tool placed around drill pipe/riser by crane with the assistance of ROVs *Use method like balloon angioplasty in heart surgery. Insert and inflate balloon in riser. **Use metal collar around outside of pipe to prevent balloon from moving, replace air in balloon with viscous fluid -- viscous fluid that slowly sets over 3 days (e.g. concrete)) *Insert polar molecules or ferrous substances into drill pipe then apply external magnetic field to hold them in place and reduce the effective flow area through the drill pipe. *Drill hole in riser near BOP. Pump sea water through hole to rapidly cool oil and cause formation of hydrates and other fouling materials. Hole could be drilled in a contained system essentially a miniature drilling operation where the riser is the "well". *Shoot a large projectile into the pipe. Think of a cork for a champagne bottle, but it would have to be shot into place like a bullet. *Use Liquid nitrogen to freeze the drill pipe and oil beneath the BOP. While the pipe is frozen remove the BOP and cover the area with a cement that could possibly be reinforced with wire mesh and or a steel cage. *Cut the BOP from the dill pipe. Construct tube, perhaps using sewer pipes, that surrounds the drill pipe and goes from the seabed to the surface. After the tube fills up it can be pumped and processed from the surface. *Cork the drill pipe after cutting the BOP from the drill pipe. The cork can be attached to a long steel tube that can be guided into the drill pipe. It could also be jacked into place. The large containment dome could be used as an anchor. Optionally an inflatable device could be attached to the bottom of the cork and deflated once the device is inside the pipe. The cork can then be cemented and or weld to make the seal permanent. *Shoot a projectile into the drill pipe after cutting the BOP off of the pipe. This projectile could be small or large, perhaps made out of a log of wood, like a telephone or even made out of steel. The outer shell of the projectile could be coated with various materials to help make a better seal or could even have jagged "fish hooks" much like a cheese grater to hold it in place once fired. After the projective is shot into the drill pipe it could be cemented into place to create a permanent seal. Slow oil/gas flowing through drill pipe in riser by reducing temperature * Use liquid nitrogen to cool the oil/gas mix and reduce the flow rate . Obstructing oil flow at BOP *Top kill: **Heavy mud is pumped into the well at the BOP to stop the flow. This would then be followed by pumping cement to seal the well. **A molten material such as steel is poured into the BOP. The smelted steel would instantly harden turning the BOP into a solid peice of metal. Obstructing oil flow beneath BOP *Detonate explosives next to the wellbore at a sufficient depth below the sea floor to cause collapse of the wellbore without surface leakage. This would have the advantage of reduced drilling time compared to a relief well while offering an increased risk of worsening the leak. Both the use of high explosives such as a C4 or massive amounts of TNT or the use of a Nuclear Bomb has been suggested for this technique. While the use of a Nuclear Bomb may be a harder sell to the public, it is a tried and true technique according in Russia. Russian media sources report that this technique has been successful in 4 out of 5 attempts and recent news reports that President Obama has sent top nuclear physicist to tackle the oil spill problems providing indications that the US Government may be considering using this technique. It is argued that the use of enough high explosive could yield an explosion with a yield equivalent to a Nuclear bomb which begs the question of why a potentially catastrophic nuclear bomb would be used in lieu of high explosives. It is also argued that while the use of Nuclear explosives have been successful in Russia, they have never been used at such a depth and the possibility of the device creating a massive tidal wave if fired at such a depth is also brought into question. =Removing oil already in the sea= *Burn oil using fire booms. *Burn oil near leaks while oil is still underwater and in high concentration. This would require large amounts of energy due to the pressure, temperature, presence of water, and absence of oxygen. A furnace would likely be required that is capable of vaporizing the water that is taken in along with the oil and gas. Eliminating oil using chemical applications *apply dispersants on sea surface *apply dispersants at source of leak on sea floor Eliminating oil using bio-agents *disperse oil eating bacteria on oil covered sea surface *disperse oil eating bacteria at source of leak on sea floor Recovering oil from sea surface * Vessel based oil/water separation technology with 50,000 gallons/hour capacity powered by RLDVPT external combustion engine:''' '''A vessel with special hardware (arrangement for its production and montage is required) comes to the area of disaster and starts recovering the water spoiled by oil (a mixture, able to burn). Vessel-based, high performance water recovery hardware require a lot of electric power to operate and of course, a vessel needs diesel fuel to continue working non-stop (e.g. 24h) in the area of disaster. It is possible to recover a few dozens of tonns (m3) of spoiled sea water in 1 hour with our solution. To let this work, we researched and implemented the new type of external combustion engine called RLDVPT, designed to be at heart of outstanding electric power station, able to take heat energy from burning mixture. RLDVPT is a new type of external combustion engine and it uses, as input power, just heat. All required electric current for any type of bestfit water recovery station and for vessel movement in the area of disaster would be produced until spoiled sea water, able to burn, is exist in that area. Chain of hardware operates quick, efficient and with high performance output. We recommend to use our water recovery station as complete solution with RLDVPT, as we see huge amount of waste put to the Gulf of Mexico daily and just small amount to be utilized by local forces. *use Oil-Fix oil absorber. Here's is how it works: The absorber only has to be brought to the points (e.g. by ships or by plane). There it sucks the oil out of the water. 10 kg can suck out 100 l of oil. It is floating also when it is full of oil, so you only have to fish it out (e.g. with ordinary nets or meshes). After taken the oil away from the absorber it can be used again. It is an organic material so it can do no harm to the sea – even birds can walk on it. To see TV reports about it visit www.g-lenium.com *Cleaning oil using hay: It has been proposed to use hay to soak oil up using hole. Large amounts of hay could be put into the sea which will soak up the oil. The hay could then be collected on the coast when it washed up. Alternately, hay can be put into large nets and boats can drag nets across the surface of the sea and soak up the oil. A video demonstration of using hay to soak up the oil can be found here. http://www.wimp.com/solutionoil/ =Stop oil from reaching the coast= Physical obstructions to stop oil from reaching coast *use booms that float in the sea to prevent surface oil from reaching coast *It has been suggested that a large oil "chimney" be put around the leak. It would cause all of the oil to rise to the surface in a contained area where it can be pumped from the water and later be processed. *Equip oil super tankers with massive pumps to process oil in the Gulf. This technique has been used before in Saudi Arabia on a blowout that leaked much more oil than what BP and the Government claim is leaking from this blowout and it recovered over 85% of the oil lost. Oil super tankers would be empty of oil and massive pumps would suck up massive amounts of oil and take it to port where it could be further processed and the captured oil can then be processed and used later. In comparison, it is reported that as little as 5-15% of the oil leaked from the Exxon-Valdez spill was ever retrieved. It has been reported that this technique has been suggested to BP who declined to use it because it would cost them to much money. BP then threatened to sue if a revelation of this suggestion was made public. With the latest news reports that massive plumes of oil are now floating beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, which may be due to the use of dispersant to hide the amount of oil that is actually leaking, this method may not recover the 85% of oil that was covered in the Saudi Spill. However, if the use of dispersant is stopped the oil that raises to the surface could then be collected and processed. Preventing oil from reaching the coast in ways other than using physical obstructions *seed clouds over gulf to reduce temperature and create low pressure in atmosphere to generate wind that blows oil to sea. =Ideas for methods and technology to increase underwater operations capacity= In this section place ideas that increase the operations options so that the 5000ft between the surface and leak are less an obstacle. Essentially answer the question, "what tools would enable us to treat this spill more like it were on dry land?" *Use the 100 ton containment boom used in a prior solution attempt as a fixture and datum for sea floor operations. ROV's and other equipment could be attached to the boom allowing the use of higher forces and more controlled motion relative to the leak. *Create a large concrete and steel submersible workstation with docking capability that would allow robots designed for standard atmospheric environments to operate on the sea floor. =Uncategorized Solutions-solutions that don't fit in above categories= =Solutions Posted Other Places Online= *In situ burning of oil, collapsing of riser using heavy concrete block, insertion of balloon into drill pipe http://www.ghostnasa.com/posts2/070oilspillsolution.html * Wall Street Journal graphic of "top hat", containment dome, relief wells, and tube insertion solutions being attempted by BP. *Information on "junk shot" approach at Mediaite.com =References=